The VW van goes to the great junkyard in the sky — that’s it for the microbus, after 64 years of wheezing up hills.

The Volkswagen microbus, that zany cultural icon of the flower-power Sixties and, more soberly, the workhorse of small businesses worldwide for more than 60 years, will finally give it up and head for the barn.

In December, according to this piece from Der Spiegel, Volkswagen’s operation in Brazil, the only country where the old buses are still made, will end production of the old Type 2 transporter, that rattling and wheezing contraption that nonetheless performed in a mostly faithful manner. The reason for axing the old bus is fairly mundane, too, but just as predictable in the 21st century nanny state — starting in 2014, cars made in Brazil must have standard anti-lock brakes and air bags, something VW apparently decided not to do on the less-than-modern microbus. (It would be soooooo out of character, anyway, to have a charming car like that with ABS and air bags.)

So it’s the end of an era. The VW microbus, known variously as the Kombi or the Bulli or just the Bus, was a binge kind of vehicle — it held an extraordinary amount of stuff and you could cram a lot of people into it for one of those Sixties events, whether you were heading for a demonstration or a Jefferson Airplane concert.

My sister generously loaned me her 1963 23-window (including 8 skylights) microbus one winter and I drove it from New York to Colorado, where it spent a hardy year in service as a college town errand-runner, party-runner, beerkeg-runner, date-runner, all without breaking a sweat. In terms of contemporary auto safety, those things were incredibly dangerous — the only thing between the driver and the car you were about to hit was the front-of-the-bus sheet metal a few inches from your knees. The engine was in the rear. But they were fun, they were useful and they reeked with character.

Some time after I drove it back east, the poor bus was stolen off the streets of New York and every time I see a white-over-dark-green microbus I take a closer look to see if it’s the one. By the way, they’ve become collector items and regularly crop up on the classic car auction circuit. Clearly, there are still devoted fans out there and a multiplicity of Web sites for the faithful.